The Last Candle

I may or may not have mentioned on my blog recently (too lazy to go back and check — yeah, even a few posts, which would span the last six months) that I’ve figured that by buying a few particular movie collections, I can literally stop buying movies for the rest of my life. Do I exaggerate? Well, will the future bring any films as fine as those brought to the silver screen by the following actor and directors?

• Humphrey Bogart
• Akira Kurosawa
• Hayao Miyazaki

Okay, I do exaggerate about the whole “never buy again!” thing. But only partially: I really do think that I can get away with buying very few movies in the future — at a rate of one film every five years or so, say — by purchasing the greater part of the libraries available from the aforementioned. (As for movies in the past that I could up on: Yeah, lots more of those. On the Waterfront, for instance, just for Brando's car scene. But he’s not going anywhere.) <p/> Accumulating the films of those three, one actor and two directors, will be no small task: Kurosawa’s lent his eye to over thirty films alone. And while he and Bogie are no longer directoring or acting (Kurosawa continues to write), Miyazaki has a fine library himself and is still making films, even in the face of his continued threats to retire. <p/> This time last week, my quest to collect these films hadn't taken a single step. Today, however, the adventure is furthered with a giant leap. <p/> <p/> I still have African Queen to pick up — the incredible combination of Bogart and Hepburn on screen at the same time can’t keep me away for long — and To Have Or Have Not is soon to be watched. But talk about a beautiful beginning!